Product Description

Fortified with Yankee ingenuity and western can-do energy, the Moody family, transplanted from New England, builds a new life on a Colorado ranch early in the twentieth century. Father has died and Little Britches shoulders the reponsibilities of a man at age eleven.

Publisher's Description

Fortified with Yankee ingenuity and western can-do energy, the Moody family, transplanted from New England, builds a new life on a Colorado ranch early in the twentieth century. Father has died and Little Britches shoulders the responsibilities of a man at age eleven. Man of the Family continues true pioneering adventures as unforgettable as those in Little Britches and The Fields of Home, also available as Bison Books.

Author Bio

Ralph Moody (1898–1982) is the author of Come on Seabicuit! as well as the Little Britches series about a boy's life on a Colorado ranch, all available in Bison Books editions.

Editorial Reviews

"[Moody] has a splendid talent for bringing the ashes of the past into life."—Chicago Sunday Tribune

"An affectionate portrait of ranch-town folk who knew how to help without humiliating, and a warm but ungushing tribute to a remarkable woman who deplored her inability to give her children everything, yet gave them much."—New York Times

"Man of the Family is everything that Little Britches was—a heart-warming, frank, com-pletely delightful narrative. Some readers may even like it better."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Mr. Moody remembers, and can put on paper, the terrifying passion of a small boy's heart, where there is no routine, and every victory and every disappointment is oversize and overwhelming."—New York Herald Tribune

"A heart-warming book. . . . Little Britches' fierce loyalty to his mother is matched only by his practical consideration for his brothers and sisters."—Christian Science Monitor

"Ralph Moody’s books should be read aloud in every family circle in America"—Sterling North

We have 4 boys & have read Little Britches - Father & I were Ranchers, and we are almost done with the Man of the Family book. They are excellent "boy" books. We read them as a family read aloud. We laugh & cry (well, mom & dad cry) There is some "rough & tough" cowboy language, but other than that, it teaches GREAT work ethics & working together as a family team. We highly recommend it. Our family plans on buying the whole series. There are 8 books in all.